Epiphany of the Long Sun (48 page)

"This augur and I are old-I really can't say friends. Acquaintances. You, I feel sure, are the rebels' famous General Mint." The stranger giggled. "Presumably you aim at supreme power, which would make you the Govern-Mint. I like that! I'm Councillor Potto. Curtain. Did you wish to speak to me?"

For a fleeting moment in which his heart nearly stopped, it seemed to Silk that he had seen Hyacinth among the cheering pedestrians. Before he could shout to his bearers, the woman turned her head and the illusion ended. He had been ready, as he realized as he settled back among the cushions, to spring out of the litter.

I need my glasses, he thought. My old ones, which I can't possibly get back, or some new ones.

Oreb fluttered on his shoulder. "Good Silk!"

"Crazed Silk," he told his bird. "Mad and foolish Silk. I mistook another woman for her."

"No see."

"My own thought exactly. Several times I've dreamed my mother was alive. Have I told you about that?"

Oreb whistled.

"For a minute or two after I woke up, I believed it, and I was so happy. This was like that." Leaning from the right side of the litter, he addressed the head bearer. "You needn't go so fast. You'll wear yourselves out."

The man grinned and bobbed his head.

Silk settled back again. Their speed was increasing. No doubt the bearers felt it a question of honor; when one carried the Caldé, one ran. Otherwise ordinary people who had never had the privilege of carrying the Caldé's litter might think him on an errand of no importance. Which would never do; if his errand were of no importance, neither were his bearers.

"I've got twenty Guardsmen looking for her," he told Oreb. "That's not enough, since they didn't find her, but it's all we could spare with the Fourth Brigade holding out on the north side, and the Ayuntamiento in the tunnels."

Mention of the tunnels made Oreb croak unhappily.

At what amounted to a dead run, the litter swayed, yawed, and swerved off Sun Street onto Lamp. Leaning out Silk said, "Music Street-I thought I made it clear. A block east."

The head bearer's head bobbed as before.

"If twenty Guardsmen can't find her, Oreb, I certainly can't; and last night I didn't. We didn't, I ought to say. So we need help, and I cant hink of three places-no, four-where we may get it. Today we're going to try them all Most of the fires are out, and Maytera Mint and Oosik can actually fight better without me in the way; so although the physician says I should be in bed, and I'm not supposed to have a minute to myself, I intend to take as many hours as necessary."

Yawing as before, the litter turned onto a still narrower street that Silk did not recognize.

"It's up to the gods, I'm afraid. I don't trust them-not even the Outsider, who seems to trust me-but they may smile on us yet."

"Find girl?"

He had lost his desire to talk, but the intensity of his emotions drove the words forth. "What did he
want
with her!" As he spoke, the litter sped past a shop with a zither and a dusty bassoon in its window.

But Caldé Silk of Viron did not see them.

"This is the kitchen?" Maytera Mint looked around her in surprise. It was the largest that she had ever seen.

"There are, ah, alternatives," Remora ventured. "Still entire, eh? Equally, hum, unsigned by Sabered Sphigx."

"I find it cozy," Potto declared. "For one thing, there's food, though your troops, my dear young General, made off with a lot. I like food, even if I can't eat it. For another, I'm a good host, eager for the comfort of my guests, and it's easy to heat. Behold this noble stove and laden woodbox. I'm happily immune to drafts, but you aren't. I'm determined to make you comfortable. Those other rooms offer the chilly attractions of a society beauty. This will provide warmth and tea, even soup." He giggled. "All the solid virtues of an old nurse. Besides, there are a great many sharp knives, and I'm always encouraged by the presence of sharp knives."

"You can't be here alone," Maytera Mint said.

Potto grinned. "Do you propose to attack me if I am?"

"Certainly not."

"You have an azoth, the famous one given you by Silk. I won't search you for it now."

"I left it with Colonel Bison. If I had come armed after calling for a truce, you'd be entitled to kill me."

"I am anyhow," Potto told her. He picked up a stick of firewood and snapped it between his hands. "The rules of war protect armies and their auxiliaries. Yours is a rebellion, not a war, and rebels get no such protection. Patera there knows that's the truth. Look at his face."

"I-ah-assert the privilege of my cloth."

"You can. You haven't fought, so you're entitled to it. The General has and isn't. It's all very simple."

When neither replied, Potto added, "Speaking of cloth, I forgot to say that the rules apply only to soldiers and those auxiliaries who wear their city's uniform, as General Saba does. You, my dear General, don't. The upshot is that though I can't offer violence to your armies as long as the truce holds, I'm entitled to break both your leggies if I want to, and even to wring your necky. Sit down, there's a cozy little table right over there. I'll build a fire and put the kettle on."

They sat, Remora tucking the rich overrobe he wore around his legs, Maytera Mint as she might have in the cenoby, her delicate hands folded in her lap, and her head bowed.

Potto filled one of the stove's fireboxes and stroked a stick of kinding. It burst into flame, not merely at one end like a torch, but along its entire length. He tossed it into the firebox and shoved the firebox back in place with an angry grinding of iron.

"He, um, intrigues to separate us," Remora whispered. "A-ah-hallowed? Elementary stratagem, General. I shall, um, cleave to you, eh? If you in, ah, analogous fashion-"

"Maytera. Call me Maytera, please, Your Eminence, when we're alone."

"Indeed. Indeed!
O,
ah,
soror neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum. O passi graviora, dabit Pas his guoque finem
."

Potto was filling a teakettle. Without turning his head, he said, "I have sharp ears. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Maytera Mint looked up. "Then I'm spared the necessity of raising my voice. Are you really Councillor Potto? We came to negotiate with the Ayuntamiento, not with anyone we chanced to meet. If you are, whose body was that?"

"Yes." Potto put the kettle on the stove. "Mine. Have you more questions?"

"Certainly. Are you willing to stop all this bloodshed?"

"It bothers you, doesn't it?" He pulled out a stout stool and sat down so heavily the floor shook.

"Seeing good and brave troopers die? Watching someone who was eager to obey me a few seconds ago writhing and bleeding in the street? It does!"

"Well, it doesn't me, and I don't understand why it should you. I never have. Call it a gift. There are people who can listen to music all evening, then go home and write everything down, and others who can run faster and farther than a horse. Did you know that? Mine's a less amazing gift, though it's brought me success. I don't feel pain I don't feel. Is that what you call a tautology? It's what life has taught me. I give it to you for nothing."

Remora nodded, his long face longer than ever. "I, er, vouchsafe it might be included under that-ah-rubric."

"Councillor."

"Why-ah-indeed. I had no, um, intention-"

"Thanks. I'm the only member who forced his way in, or had to. Did you know that, either of you?"

Maytera Mint shook her head.

"We're all related, as you can see from our names. Lemur and Loris were brothers. Lemur's dead. You don't have to look surprised, I know you know. He packed the Ayuntamiento with relatives, back before Patera here was born. I came to him. I approached him forthrightly and fairly. He'd brought in Galago, a second cousin by courtesy. I was much closer, and I said so. He said he'd take it under advisement. A week later-there'd been this and that, you know, nothing serious-he tried to have me killed. I saw to it that the man's flesh was served to us at dinner, and dessert was his head in lemon sherbet. Lemur jerked away from it, and I scooped up a little sherbet with my fingers and ate it. I took the oath next day. Councillor Potto. My cousins soon discovered that I was a useful friend, not just an unpleasant relative."

Maytera Mint nodded. "You're proud of being useful, as everyone who is, is entided to be. Now you have a chance to be of great service to our whole city."

"We have, ah, ventured forth in good faith," Remora put in. "The general has come unarmed. My-ah-vocation prohibits weapons. Such, at least, is my own opinion, though the-our Caldé's may differ. I ask you, Council or, whether you, er, similarly. Are we intermediaries? Or, um, captives?"

"You want to go before your tea's ready?" Potto waved in the direction of the door. "Make the experiment, Patera."

"My duty, um, confines me."

"Then you're a prisoner, but not mine. Dear young General Mint, wouldn't you like to know how I manage to be alive in the kitchen and dead in the drawing room?"

"There were two of you, clearly." She had taken her big wooden prayer beads from her pocket; she ran them through her fingers, comforted by their familiar shapes.

"No, only one, and that one is neither here nor there. As we aged, Cousin Tarsier made us new bodies out of chems. Lemur got the first one, and the rest of us later as we came to need them, bodies we can work from our beds. I can't enjoy food, but I eat. I'm feeding intravenously right now."

"What became of the chems?" Maytera Mint managed to keep her voice steady. "Of their minds?"

"I thought you were going to ask me whether he made the others more than one."

"No. Clearly he did, or someone did. But you got this body from another person. And-and changed it to look like you? You must have. Did he consent to any of that?"

"The logical question is whether there are two of all of us." Potto struck the table with his fist. "You didn't even ask how I got the wood to burn. How am I supposed to deal with someone who won't stick to the point?"

Remora began, "I, ah-" But Potto was not through. "By sticking with the point myself. That's it! I may soon stick with one so well that it sticks out your back." He turned to Remora. "Yes, Patera. You were about to say…?"

"I was, um, speculating, Councillor, upon how you ignited that wood so, er, effortlessly. I, um, hope that you will, um, consent to ah-illuminate that matter for us."

"I am not going to sit here teaching a butcher chemistry. Can't either of you understand that once I've told you what I want, I don't want it? What are
you
doing here anyway? Dear General Mint's the leader, after Silk. Why are you here?"

"To, er, mediate. We, um, His Cognizance and, hum-"

"To bring peace," Maytera Mint declared. "Caldé Silk has offered to let all of you keep your seats under the Charter. Considering all that's happened, I think it very generous."

"For life?"

Remora touched her arm, and she found it easy to interpret the jesture. "Is there a provision for life tenure? If so, I imagine it might be invoked." Remora shook his head; the motion was slight, but she saw it.

Potto smiled; it was so unexpected that she wondered for a moment whether she had unwittingly promised a return to power.

Seeing it, Remora positively beamed. "Better! Oh, indeed! Must be mends, eh? Friends can make peace, foes, er, unable."

"You misunderstand my expression, Patera."

"I, um, hail and approve it. Time-ah-sufficient for understanding, er, presently. Maybe I put forward a proposal, Councillor? General? My wish, a heartfelt suggestion. That we-ah-solemnly convene at the present moment, offering our prayer to the Nine. Our petition, if you will, that-"

"Shut up," Potto snapped. "I've got the key, and you go on blathering. Caldé Silk sent you, General. Is that right?"

"He would approve of my coming, certainly. For days we've been trying to reach you councillors on our glasses. I thought we might try this."

When Potto did not reply, she added, "His Eminence was chosen as an intermediary by your Brigadier Erne and our Caldé. Soon after, as I understand it, His Cognizance offered his help as well. We were and are overjoyed. I would hope-"

"You can't speak for him," Potto told her. "You may think you can, or that Patera here can, but you can't. I've known him a long time, and there's not a more malicious and unpredictable person in the city. Not even me. You're a general, General?"

She nodded. "Appointed by Divine Echidna in a theophany. My instructions," she amended them mentally in the interests of peace, "were to tear down the Alambrera and see to it that Viron remained loyal to Scylla. If you're asking my position in the command structure, Caldé Silk is the head of our government, civil as well as military. Generalissimo Oosik is our supreme military commander. I am in charge of the armed populace, and General Skate commands the Caldé's Guard."

Potto tittered. "Then you've a firm grasp of the military situation. I don't. Lemur was our military man. Explain our circumstances to me, General, so we can start together."

"You're serious?"

He rocked with silent merriment. "Never more."

"As you wish. After Ophidian Echidna's theophany, we had about thirty thousand troopers. Not that there were that many witnesses, or half that many, but a great many who heard what had happened from others joined us. Some were Guardsmen, none, I think, above captain. You, the Ayuntamiento, called out the Army, giving you something like seven thousand soldiers, besides the twenty-four thousand troopers of your Civil Guard."

"Go on," Potto told her. "None of this is quite right, but it's interesting."

"My figures for the Guard come from Generalissimo Oosik, who was certainly in a position to know. Those for the Army, from Sergeant Sand, the leader of those brave soldiers who saw that true loyalty lay in siding with the Caldé."

Potto was still grinning. "Excuse the interruption."

"I was about to say that since then we've gained strength, and you've lost it. By shadelow, we had nearly reached our present total of about fifty thousand. I'm referring to my own troops here. That night, every brigade of your Civil Guard went over to the Caldé except the Fourth. The Fourth and the Third, which was the generalissimo's, had been holding the Palatine. The Fourth, commanded by Brigadier Erne was driven from it next day, and into the northern suburbs."